No succession, no change, no acquisition, no diminution. What he
is implies not in it any shadow of distinction or diversity. And
what he is this moment he ever has been, and ever will be,
without any new judgement, sentiment, or operation. He stands
fixed in one simple, perfect state: nor can you ever say, with
any propriety, that this act of his is different from that other;
or that this judgement or idea has been lately formed, and will
give place, by succession, to any different judgement or idea.
I can readily allow, said C/LEANTHES\, that those who
maintain the perfect simplicity of the Supreme Being, to the
extent in which you have explained it, are complete Mystics, and
chargeable with all the consequences which I have drawn from
their opinion. They are, in a word, Atheists, without knowing it.
For though it be allowed, that the Deity possesses attributes of
which we have no comprehension, yet ought we never to ascribe to
him any attributes which are absolutely incompatible with that
intelligent nature essential to him. A mind, whose acts and
sentiments and ideas are not distinct and successive; one, that
is wholly simple, and totally immutable, is a mind which has no
thought, no reason, no will, no sentiment, no love, no hatred;
or, in a word, is no mind at all. It is an abuse of terms to give
it that appellation; and we may as well speak of limited
extension without figure, or of number without composition.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81